Random Facts

[Artemis]

Thanks

Today among other things is the birthday of Charles the Simple, who I just spent a while reading through the wikipedia article for - king of bits of France and whatnot around the 900-somethings, son of Louis the Stammerer, and one of his daughters was named Rotrude. That's a name you don't see nowadays. It's also the day (quite a while later) that NASA unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise (which later appeared in a display of earlier Enterprises in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which means presumably in that universe NASA named it after some other Enterprise first, one of the tall ships or something), and speaking of recognisable spaceships, in 1978 Battlestar Galactica made its debut.

And it's Apple Dumpling Day and Monte Cristo Sandwich Day; had to look that one up, it seems it's basically a toasted ham sandwich but fried. Sounds like ruining a toasted ham sandwich to me...

[Artemis]

Starting off today all scientific, in 1977 Voyager 1 turned its camera around to snap the first ever photo of the Earth and Moon in one shot, and among other things that happened on that little blue dot, in 1837 Tiffany & Young (later Tiffany & Co.) was founded as a 'stationery and fancy goods emporium' (I hear they do breakfast too - incidentally it's also National Cheeseburger Day, so if they've lowered their standards you could commemorate it there), and in 1793 the first cornerstone of the Capitol was laid in Washington DC (it probably seemed like a good idea at the time). And it's International Read an eBook Day; reading fics here should count, so long as you do it on your phone.

[Artemis]

Avast me hearties! Tis on this day that the chroniclers in the halls of academic back in merry old England do record it bein' the birthday of master Adam West, famed and now sadly missed vaudevillian who amazed rich and poor alike with his charm and wit afore them newfangled cinematical cameras as none other than the Batman. All praise to yon charming devil behind the cape and cowl! And while ye be buyin' a round at the tavern in celebration, chow ye down on the national food of this day, which be butterscotch pudding!

[Artemis]

Today is indeed a dire day - on this day in 1968 Star Trek aired what would go on to be known as its dumbest episode (until the one where Paris and Janeway turned into catfish and banged, anyway), 'Spock's Brain', in which aliens steal, yes, Spock's brain (as in not a brain pattern transmitting thing, they literally scooped the grey matter or whatever colour it is when you're half-Vulcan out of his head and made away with it), and the Enterprise crew had to go get it back. Not only that, for expediency's sake they took Spock with them by way of McCoy rigging up a little remote control gadget so they could drive him around with a tricorder. So we're all excited about the new Star Trek series in a few days, right? (Actually I've been watching a few interviews and character spotlights and whatnot on youtube, and starting to think actually this sounds like it could be pretty good - would've been nice if they'd just made a good trailer to begin with, but whatever works in the end I guess.)

And it's also National Pepperoni Pizza Day (I have to admit I'm not a huge fan), and also National Punch Day and National Rum Punch Day. I feel like rum punch is being kind of a jerk in not only insisting on having a day of its own, but having it on the same day. Not cool, rum punch.

[Artemis]

On this National Pecan Cookie Day (for some reason my brain gets pecan and toucan mixed up, so for a second or two I always find myself thinking that a pecan is a bird - which'd make for an odd cookie), HG Wells was born back in 1866 (or forward in 1866, you never know), and in 1937 The Hobbit was published, so it's kind of a literary sort of day. Apart from the pecans, I'm not sure if they read.

[Artemis]

Today... there's no food assigned to today, what gives? What are we supposed to eat? Well let's see what we've got. It's Hobbit Day, so remember to have second breakfast, in 1789 the office of the US Postmaster General was established, so that'd kinda sorta like ordering home delivery, in 1910 the Duke of York's Picture House opened which is currently the world's longest operating cinema, so popcorn, and it's Laura Vandevoort's birthday (Kara on Smallville, and more recently Indigo/Brainiac on Supergirl) who's rather yummy... And (I'm out of food links) on this day in 1966 Star Trek aired 'Where No Man Has Gone Before', which although it wasn't the first episode shown, was the first regular episode in production order, since it was the second pilot episode - the first with Captain Kirk - it's all very confused. The Enterprise flies into a giant energy barrier surrounding the galaxy, a couple of the crew get godlike psychic powers as a result, Kirk gets in a fight and has his shirt torn, business as usual.

[Artemis]

I failed to do due diligence yesterday - I only looked at the US food list, when in fact September 22 is International Mixed Berries Muffin Day. Hopefully the mixed berries muffin industry wasn't relying on me alone. Today though, there genuinely is no food attached, either national or inter-. I think that's about run the food joke into the ground. It is however the birthday of Alex Proyas, who's made, well, some dire stuff lately, but nobody can ever take away what I consider to be one of the most finely-crafted films ever made: Dark City. If you don't know it, don't look it up, go get it on dvd, don't read the back of the dvd case, and if it's not the director's cut, mute the sound right at the start until you see a watch. That's really important. Reminiscing, the first Willow/Tara fic I ever wrote (aside from Rocky Horror, which was more just a bit of fun than a story), Tara being a nightclub singer was very much inspired by Jennifer Connelly in Dark City.

[Artemis]

No food day in the US again, although it is National Punctuation Day, so here's one: <- that was it (so was the arrow, kind of; and the brackets?) (Actually, do smileys count as a form of punctuation? Or are they an evolution of punctuation, like how if you make a computer fancy enough it becomes self-aware? Food for thought.) I did broaden my search and found out that it's South Africa National Braai Day, which is both a barbecue, and the social occasion of having a barbecue. Things I learned while researching this: GM used it in their ads for Chevys, localised from the US "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet" to "Braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies, and Chevrolet"; we had our own version of that, "football, meat pies, kangaroos & Holden Cars," which I actually vaguely remember. I'm not really very interested at all in motor sports nowadays - outside occasional interest in Formula 1 - but my dad did used to watch Bathurst, and insofar as I cared at all I was with him on the Holden side of the Holden vs Ford rivalry that's apparently a thing.

[Artemis]

Choice of food today (should I move this whole thing to a food thread?) - in the US it's Lobster Day, and in Germany it's Butterbrot Day (buttered bread). I'm not much of a seafood person, so I'll take my chances with the bread falling on the floor butter-down. Otherwise on this birthday of both Mark Hamill and Christopher Reeve, in 1066 the Viking Age, or at least the bit of it that involved repeatedly invading England, came to a screeching halt courtesy of King Harold Godwinson and his boys at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (although the surviving Vikings got some vicarious payback when Harold had his kingly butt handed to him by the Normans three weeks later), and a couple of centuries later - possibly missing the regular scraps with the Vikings - the English and Scottish signed the Treaty of York establishing the border between them, so now they had something concrete to fight over for the next few hundred years.

[Artemis]

On this day, when among other things I finally finished the next She-Ra story (seriously, been tinkering with that since January) - back in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation was taking to the airwaves, hoping to win over Trekkies many of whom were fiercely denouncing the notion of a Star Trek show featuring anyone but Captain Kirk (yes, really). 'Encounter at Farpoint' introduced us to Captain Picard, who remained French for a good five or six episodes before they quietly forgot about it (to the point where in season four when they visit his brother, who still lives in France, he's British too), Counselor Troi who actually felt whatever emotions she was picking up from anyone else (presumably they realised it'd get old if she had to burst into tears every time anyone within half a light year was upset), Will Riker's beardless chin, a new Enterprise that could separate its saucer section to keep the crew's families out of harm's way when they went into danger (they realised they only had 42 minutes per episode and couldn't keep pausing to take the ship apart, so they wound up just charging at Romulan warbirds civilians-first) and Starfleet's latest attempt to make a minidress a standard uniform (but being committed to equality, they had men wearing them as well). Luckily it got better.

And today's Better Breakfast Day, so presumably either pancakes or dumplings are considered to be better breakfasts, because it's their national day as well.

[Artemis]

With today's food day thing already diverted to the Either Or thread, all that remains is nerdery and sci-fi birthdays, and we can combine them with a happy birthday to Garrick Hagon and Denis Lawson, aka Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles, two of the supporting X-Wing pilots in Star Wars. I always get their names mixed up, but having just checked, Biggs is the one who has a mustache who gets killed, and Wedge is the one who doesn't and doesn't.

It's also on this day that NASA fired Dawn into space - no, not her (I actually liked her), the spacecraft (which has a xenon-ion engine; we may not have figured out warp drive yet but at least we're naming them well), which went off to the asteroid belt to study two of its resident protoplanets, Vesta and Ceres, the latter recently featured as the location of half a season's moping from Thomas Jane with a silly haircut in The Expanse. It's also Google's claimed birthday, which apparently may not be its actual birthday, but nobody can tell, because how would you look it up otherwise?

[thespian_phryne]

[seemed more like a chat thing. moved it there]

[Artemis]

Here's a random fact - I got a new bit of merch for the Kittens shelf:



Rock Candy Willow, along with... well I only have one other of these things, so for the moment that is absolutely Tara cosplaying as Captain Marvel. Maybe the Scoobies did a Halloween version of Secret Santa, where they all picked costumes for each other based on a random draw, and Xander's a big comic book fan so he put Captain Marvel into the draw (which is actually quite clever, since it doesn't matter who got it, there's a male and female Captain Marvel to choose from), and Tara thought, y'know what, this is something I've never done before, why not? And it turns out she's really good at cosplay. Willow's not in her costume yet because this is just Tara trying hers on to make sure it all fits before the Halloween party.

And it's National Coffee Day in a whole bunch of countries (Australia included, but not Switzerland, where it was yesterday), but for some reason International Coffee Day is October 1, which is only Coffee Day in Japan and Sri Lanka. How complicated does coffee day really need to be? Today I learned that all this is overseen by the International Coffee Organisation, the highest level of which is the International Coffee Council. Totally imagining one of those white and stainless steel meeting rooms Spectre used to have in Bond movies.

[Laragh]

Those are awesome Chris! I never buy a Willow figure unless I can also buy a Tara figure that goes with it somehow (how could I have one all lonely without the other?) so I love that you've repurposed some to make that work!

[thespian_phryne]

Here's a random fact - I got a new bit of merch for the Kittens shelf:

[img]http://uberwillowtara.com/externalimages/willowmarveltara.jpg[/]

Rock Candy Willow, along with... well I only have one other of these things, so for the moment that is absolutely Tara cosplaying as Captain Marvel. Maybe the Scoobies did a Halloween version of Secret Santa, where they all picked costumes for each other based on a random draw, and Xander's a big comic book fan so he put Captain Marvel into the draw (which is actually quite clever, since it doesn't matter who got it, there's a male and female Captain Marvel to choose from), and Tara thought, y'know what, this is something I've never done before, why not? And it turns out she's really good at cosplay. Willow's not in her costume yet because this is just Tara trying hers on to make sure it all fits before the Halloween party.
[....]

100% legit.

[Laragh]

Someone needs to get on that fanfic.

[Artemis]

I'll add it to my to-do list. That's not the only repurposed Kitten figure, since there's no 12" Tara and as you say I couldn't just have Sideshow Willow on her own, she's got quite a spicy Tara keeping her company courtesy of a Triad Otaku 1.0 (apart from the obvious reason they're kissing, the combination of her head tilted away and Willow's hand in her hair means you can't see her face, so it works). Spicy since, well, I haven't got 12"-scale Tara clothing either, but the Otakus were meant for display au naturel, so that's another reason Willow's looking cheerful.

(There's also a wholly repurposed pair, although as I recall the idea was going around when the dolls came out, so I'm sure mine aren't the only ones - 'Will' and 'Cornelia' from W.I.T.C.H. are an uncannily good match for cutesy cartoony Willow and Tara.)

Anyway, on this National Hot Mulled Cider day (so you have to stop and think about it a bit...?) we have a few sci-fi-relevant birthdays to celebrate - the late Dan O'Bannon first off, one of the minds behind Alien (and his brother Rockne O'Bannon did Farscape, so it obviously runs in the family), Lacey Chabert from the Lost In Space film (I kind of liked it), Ezra Miller who'll be the Flash in the upcoming Justice League, and Monica Bellucci, who's Monica Bellucci (plus she was whoever she was in the Matrix sequels). And I just found out courtesy of wikipedia, it's International Blasphemy Day today, which is actually more intellectual than it sounds, being about the freedom to express opinions even if they run counter to religion, not just peppering deities into any swearing you happen to be doing, but hey, if you want you can do that too.

[Artemis]

What do you know, something on my to-do list got to-done. I know, doesn't make grammatical sense. It's slightly (several hours) past midnight, but that's still close enough to October 1 to mark the birthday of Lady Dame Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington, PMV, SG, GCR, MC, SC, OG, DSO, CGM, Steadholder Harrington, Duchess Harrington, Countess White Haven - or just Honor Harrington, if you want to fit it on the cover of a book. I'm quite fond of the Honorverse novels, even if they do tend to infodump alarmingly (I can hardly complain).

[Artemis]

No work today because it's Labour Day, which honestly I've never actually wondered what it's for until now - it celebrates the eight-hour working day (as opposed to the keep-working-until-you-pass-out system, which I feel is kind of making a comeback...), and that would've been more obvious if I lived in Tasmania, where it's called Eight Hours Day.

Anyway though, we've got some more birthdays from sci-fi things I like, starting with one of the big ones: Avery Brooks, who played Benjamin Lafayette Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - also known as "The Sisko", and that's kind of deserved, the guy is a demigod, no not fanspeak, his ancestry includes alien deity. He's a hell of a chef too. Also from Star Trek, the lovely and sadly late Persis Khambatta, who played Ilia (aka Deanna Troi version one, no hair, no pants) in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. And a couple of villains from Dune, Sting (Feyd-Rautha in the David Lynch movie; "I will kill HIM!") and his uncle-from-another-incarnation, Ian McNiece, Baron Harkonnen in the Syfy miniseries version (the one where the Baron had a penchant for finishing his monologues with rhyming couplets, but at least otherwise had a working brain).

[Artemis]

Various superhero birthdays today: Melissa Benoist (Supergirl), Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl), Alicia Vikander (Lara Croft - totally counts), and continuing the Dune theme from yesterday (but definitely not the superhero one, since she was a) evil and b) pretty hopeless even at being evil), Susan Sarandon (Princess Wensicia in the Children of Dune miniseries). I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but the trailer for Tomb Raider kind of has me looking forward to it, thinking that maybe this one will be the good video game movie at last. We're getting towards monkeys-with-typewriters kind of quantities, so sooner or later one of them has to work, surely.

Yeah, I've thought that before. Oh well. What's the worst that can happen? Oh, right, Assassin's Creed. Sigh.

Edit: Oh wait, I was looking at the wrong day (except Alicia (Vikander, not Silverstone)), oops! Oh well, happy pre-birthday to them anyway. So tomorrow we can have happy post-birthdays to today's folks, whoever they are (apart from Alicia). So maybe that's the problem, if the phrase 'video game movie' is anywhere near what you're doing, you mess it up.

Edit edit: If I'd been looking at the right day, I'd have seen this was the day Vercingetorix surrendered to Julius Caesar. Any other Asterix fans instantly thinking of Caesar yelping in pain as Vercingetorix throws his weapons down at/onto his feet? Heh.

[Artemis]

I did promise, so happy post-birthday to Lena Headey, aka Queen Gorgo, Sarah Connor, Ma-Ma (in Dredd) and Cersei Lannister, and also the voices of Black Widow and Mystique in Super Hero Squad. Also Jeopardy Mouse in the new Danger Mouse series, which I haven't managed to see yet, but I feel kind of wary about, because I love Danger Mouse but I can think of so many ways it could be rebooted wrong. It's also World Farm Animal Day, and Taco and Vodka Day - those are two separate days, not a single one for taco-and-vodka as a meal. Doesn't sound especially wholesome. Today's also the day, in 1582, when the Gregorian Calendar was implemented, after which Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain skipped straight to October 15, and in 1957 the Soviet Union kicked off the space race in earnest with the launch of Sputnik 1.

[Artemis]

Happy National Noodle Day everyone! I found quite an adventure when I was looking up today - on this day in 2007 Jason Lewis cycled into London, having set out thirteen years previously to travel around the world solely by human power. He mountain biked from London to Portugal, crossed the Atlantic on a pedal boat named Moksha, rollerbladed across North America (including being hit by a drunk driver in Colorado and having both legs broken; he got back on his skates after nine months un-breaking), back on Moksha across the Pacific via Hawaii, cycled across Australia (where he was attacked by a crocodile, because of course he was), back on Moksha to Dili and by kayak from there to Singapore, biked and hiked to the Himalayas and into India, back on the trusty old pedal boat across the Arabian Sea to Africa (where he ran into Ewan McGregor going the other way on a motorbike), biked up to the Egyptian border where they wouldn't let him in, kayaked across to Abu Simbel anyway when his Sudanese visa ran out, got arrested on suspicion of espionage, got released, was forbidden from mountain biking to Aswan, did it anyway at night so nobody would see him, and finally biked back across Turkey and Europe to get back to Blighty. Before doing all that the farthest he'd gone under his own power was cycling a few miles, and he'd worked as a window cleaner - evidently he really wanted to get away from cleaning windows. So that's quite a thing.

[Laragh]

I did promise, so happy post-birthday to Lena Headey, aka Queen Gorgo, Sarah Connor, Ma-Ma (in Dredd) and Cersei Lannister, and also the voices of Black Widow and Mystique in Super Hero Squad. .

And Luce! Can't forget Luce!

[Artemis]

And Luce! Can't forget Luce!

Okay, in a shameful display of my general ignorance outside of sci-fi or fantasy, I thought for a moment that was her role in Kingsglaive (I mean, it's close, she's Luna - or properly, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, because Final Fantasy just can't help itself), so that's a movie I need to go get. Oh hey, Giles is in it too! It's going to be really weird watching Lena Headey where her happiness isn't directly related to mass murder.

Anyway, no food today, but I declare it Cheese Day, since on this day the Soviet space probe Luna 3 (heh, Luna again) sent back the first photos of the far side of the moon. Cuz it's made of cheese... Apollo 8 took its crew on a tour when they orbited the moon, but nobody has ever actually landed there. And also speaking of cheese, today in 2011 Real Steel hit cinemas, and seemed to get a general 'meh' response, but when I picked it up on dvd I really enjoyed it - it's silly, but it's fun, it's got Hugh Jackman, and basically it's Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie. Also Falcon and Wasp from the MCU are in it.

So apparently what I need are lesbian rom-coms with robots in them. Are there many of those? I'll have a look around.

[Artemis]

It's National Fluffernutter Day - which sounds rude in a juvenile kind of way but it's actually just sandwiches with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, yes I had to look that up, so far as I know Australia has never heard of these things. But far more importantly (I think even fluffernutter fans will agree), it's the birthday of Susan Alexandra Weaver, better known as Sigourney, and also known as automatically the best part of anything she's involved in. All together now: "Get away from her you bitch!"

[Artemis]

There's no food to be commemorated today (unless you still have some fluffernutters left over... he he... I'm immature), but there is a special occasion: it's World Post Day. So if you want to send a letter now would be the best time, since presumably this is the one day the posties really don't want to mess up. It's also Fire Prevention Day, so you can be doubly sure they'll try not to set your letter on fire, at least not on purpose. And the usual handful of sci-fi-relevant birthdays: Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap's Sam Beckett, and Star Trek: Enterprise's Captain Jonathan 'Duchess' Archer), Jodelle Ferland (Dark Matter's Five), and BRIAN BLESSED, who I'm sure we all know about, or at least can hear from wherever we are.

[Artemis]

Choice of foods today - it's World Porridge Day, although owing to today not being on a weekend the World Porridge Making Championships were held on the 7th, during which Ellinor Persson took home the Golden Spurtle (is that not a pokemon?) as the world's best porridge maker, and Per Carlsson made it a double for Sweden by taking the specialty porridge making title. And if you're sick of porridge, in Japan it's Mochi Day (it's a kind of rice cake - and probably also a pokemon, there's hundreds of the blasted things), so take your pick.

It's also World Mental Health Day, while in North Korea they're celebrating Party Foundation Day, and presumably doing their best to ignore the irony.

[Artemis]

Today is International Day of the Girl Child - which one? All of them, it's to highlight gender inequality, but also specifically Michelle Trachtenberg, Claudia Black of Farscape and Stargate, and Nicola Bryant from Doctor Who. And coincidentally (unless it's on purpose, but it seems a stretch) on the topic of equality and one society that has gotten its act together, on this day in 2161 the United Federation of Planets is formed. It's also Coming Out Day, which Star Trek has historically had a bit of a problem with (not for want of trying, but the high-ups at the various movie and tv studios have historically tended to get in the way and be idiots about it) but thankfully is finally doing better with, so at least some progress is being made. Speaking of (in broad terms) our postal vote is still going on; the bureau of statistics has reported that 10 million surveys have been completed so far, so at least we seem to be taking it seriously.

And if you're wondering what to eat at a coming out or gender equality party, cheese, apparently, at least in Australia - this is our National Cheese Day, and wikipedia helpfully informs me that Australia has over 701 different Australian cheeses. Over 701 - so, 702? How many cheeses do we need, really? Apparently more if we want to impress the US, who are just taking cheese and using it as a topping for National Sausage Pizza Day today.

[Artemis]

No food for today, but raise a glass of whatever you may be drinking as a happy birthday to Wayne Pygram, who played one of the finest villains ever created, Farscape's Scorpius - a guy who will stop at nothing to exact revenge on the Scarrans who bred him as an experiment (and intend to wipe out basically everyone in the galaxy who's not a Scarran, so you can kind of get on board with Scorpy's program at times), and who knows how to suck on Claudia Karvan's head-claws until the heat sink built into his brain shoots out the side of his head. If you haven't ever seen Farscape, yes, that is a completely faithful and literal description of what happened one time (and that episode wasn't even especially one of the strange ones).

He also, naturally, played Harvey, the copy of Scorpius inside Crichton's brain - and here's a random fun fact for today, I went through all of Farscape not having any idea what the name Harvey was a reference to, I just thought it was an amusingly mundane name for an alien villain. When I learned it made Farscape that much funnier - and simultaneously I also got the "Say hello, Harvey!" joke in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[Artemis]

Today is National Dessert Day - no info on what kind of dessert, just dessert in general. That's boring so I went on a bit of a wiki ramble, and found out that several of Edgar Allen Poe's most famous short stories (including The Purloined Letter and The Pit And The Pendulum) were first published in editions of a literary annual edited by Eliza Leslie, whose 'Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats' cookbook contains the first documented use of the term 'cupcake'. So now we know, and as GI Joe always said, knowing is half the battle, although if it was that specific fact, it must've been a weird battle.

It's also World Standards Day, marking the efforts of all the people who've developed standards in, well, everything. October 14 was selected in 1946 by delegates gathered to create what would become the ISO... although Canada's lately been marking the occasion on the 12th, and the US on the 23rd, which kind of suggests that somebody hasn't thought too hard about what it is they're celebrating.